We’ve seen disappointment with the long-awaited National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation of the April 2017 Firestone accident that killed two innocent people, injured a mother and her son, and changed the lives of the family forever.  Disappointment with the two-and-a-half year wait. Disappointment with the lack of new information, and perhaps disappointment with the lack of closure that it brings. 

Serving as chairman of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) at the time, I feel connected to the state’s response. 

I’m very sympathetic to the Martinez family and the tremendous loss they experienced, through no fault of their own. 

The NTSB report told us nothing we did not already know, which is probably what we should have expected. Life provides experiences that shape and mold us, particularly when there are no black and white conclusions, no clear right or wrong distinctions, only dozens of unintentional mistakes by multiple parties culminating in a dramatic anomaly that left us blindsided.  

While full reparation for the Martinez family may not be possible, I hope they know how much that accident has shaped our laws and regulations, as well as the oil and gas industry itself. 

The word Firestone carries weight in the energy world, and such tragedies can break us or build us. Looking back, I am proud of how we responded. 

In the days following the accident, the governor issued a notice to operators that was unlike anything we’d seen before – requiring comprehensive, statewide testing of flowlines within 1,000 feet of occupied buildings and proper isolation of lines no longer in use. Industry tested more than 120,000 flowlines with a 99.65 percent success rate and no reportable leaks or damage to remaining lines. Gratefully, the state was able to confirm that no similar situation existed in Colorado.

The COGCC then began a lengthy and highly technical flowline rulemaking that concluded in February 2018, with new monitoring, testing and mapping requirements that far exceed anything else in the country. 

Going even further, the state, industry, homebuilders, agriculture, local governments and a number of other stakeholders worked with bipartisan leaders from the Colorado House and Senate, as well as the Governor’s Office, during the 2018 legislative session (SB18-167) to establish a much more robust 8-1-1 one-call system for underground excavation.

These were important undertakings with positive results. As the COGCC now takes on another flowline rulemaking, required by SB 181, I urge caution and thoughtfulness. Sometimes disappointment or politics can find their way into problem solving and lead us away from good results. 

For example, mapping has received attention lately in the press, with expressions of bewilderment that there aren’t more public maps of all underground infrastructure beneath us. While some element of disclosure is useful and truthfully appropriate, there are legitimate safety concerns attached to complete disclosures of what lies beneath your neighbor’s property or beneath important manufacturing facilities or beneath your local hospital. We have seen vandalism and tampering with critical infrastructure, and it’s important that we not further enable those activities. 

We also should not enable builders, farmers, or your neighbors to simply pull up a detailed public map of pipelines beneath their property before they begin digging. Maps of sewage lines, electric lines, natural gas lines, and waters lines are continually updated by companies, utilities, and local governments, which amplifies the importance of using the 811 system as the primary source of information before you dig. That system will ensure that all of those lines are clearly marked and identified before breaking ground. If we go too far, there is a real chance of increasing public safety risks, rather than diminishing them.

We dove into the complexity of these issues in 2017 and 2018 before I left the COGCC. While the process was appropriately emotional, ultimately the responsibility commissioners felt to administer a thoughtful outcome in cooperation with a number of stakeholders won out. Looking back, I’m grateful that was the case. 

Today, new staff and new commissioners at the COGCC carry that same responsibility, and I know they feel the weight of making thoughtful policy changes. It can be a thankless task, but I urge them to take heart and to think beyond the moment, to consider all voices and a variety of outcomes. It’s a hard but worthwhile endeavor, and we should be grateful for their service. 

Firestone has altered the way we approach oil and natural gas development in Colorado, and perhaps most importantly, it has elevated the safety culture within those energy companies that call Colorado home. I have witnessed the cultural change over the past couple of years, a change that makes us better than we were. Those improvements may not provide closure when it comes to the accident itself, but they have made a difference. Colorado communities and Colorado families are safer; oil and gas companies are improved, and our laws and regulations provide us with additional peace of mind going forward. 

Reflecting on Firestone, I am thankful for all the individuals, regulators, legislators, and companies that stepped forward to answer the call for action, and the positive actions that were made as a result. 

John H. Benton is former chairman of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.